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I am looking to buy a new printer, I haven't owned one in 5 years and my old one from HP is long gone. For me, the most deciding factor about buying the printer is the software supplied with it, I want to avoid as less bloatware as possible. Which printer brand has the best(=lightweight and stable on Windows 7) software/drivers?

Avoid anything that does not have PS, PDF or PCL in their printer language specifications (GDI or host-based, are words that you should avoid). Unless you do a lot of printing, buy a laser (monochrome or colour). If you're printing a lot see what CISS solutions there are for various ink printers . I believe Epson even markets now some printers with CISS systems.

In old days when I had my HP printer I had to install a bunch of software on my XP computer. There was a program which was necessary to use if you were printing photos on a special photo paper. Are you saying Windows 7 supports all the printer features by default, just plug and play?

silviucc: Avoid anything that does not have PS, PDF or PCL in their printer language specifications (GDI or host-based, are words that you should avoid). Unless you do a lot of printing, buy a laser (monochrome or colour). If you're printing a lot see what CISS solutions there are for various ink printers . I believe Epson even markets now some printers with CISS systems.

Personally, I'd narrow that down to: "pick a network-enabled laser printer that does PostScript, unless you require high-quality photo prints (then appropriate inkjets are your best bet, but I don't know much about those)". Toner is generally are a lot cheaper per page than ink.

aivadroid: I am looking to buy a new printer, I haven't owned one in 5 years and my old one from HP is long gone. For me, the most deciding factor about buying the printer is the software supplied with it, I want to avoid as less bloatware as possible. Which printer brand has the best(=lightweight and stable on Windows 7) software/drivers?

Check out the Epson Workforce 545. It's a great printer that is very reasonably priced and includes scanning, copying, fax, etc. It is easy to use and the included driver software is as well. After install it is accessible among the little icons in the lower right corner of the Windows taskbar. Just right clicking opens a little menu giving you access to anything you might like to do.

I like this printer and have been using it for almost a year now. It is fast and generally speaking, all I do is select print in an app and moments later I have my output. I haven't had any need to even mess with driver options. In Windows 7, the basics for formatting the output are readily accessible when you go to print.

silviucc: Avoid anything that does not have PS, PDF or PCL in their printer language specifications (GDI or host-based, are words that you should avoid). Unless you do a lot of printing, buy a laser (monochrome or colour). If you're printing a lot see what CISS solutions there are for various ink printers . I believe Epson even markets now some printers with CISS systems.

Miaghstir: Personally, I'd narrow that down to: "pick a network-enabled laser printer that does PostScript, unless you require high-quality photo prints". Toner is generally are a lot cheaper per page than ink.

It really depends on what you're printing. My Epson Stylus + CISS + compatible ink (yes, there is good quality compatible ink out there) combo is really hard to beat by lasers. It's true that it does not have PS in its printer language specs but it's very well supported by CUPS (guess I have to thank Apple for that, maybe...).

You could argue that there are compatible cartridges and toners for lasers too but I suspect that it's more expensive than the above if using compatible cartridges and messier and more time consuming to replace toner.